Aeration of liquids is a process by which ambient air is circulated through, mixed with, and/or dissolved in, a liquid. Drinkable liquids, such as wine, whiskey, sake, tea, or the like, benefit from being aerated. For example, in wine tasting, many methods are used to aerate wine to trigger oxidation and evaporation to better bring out the wine aroma or bouquet, including by swirling the wine in a glass, sometimes modified and integrated with internal ridges to enhance the aeration, or by using a decanter to increase exposure of the wine to ambient air, or by simply waiting a sufficient time for the wine to breathe, or by employing specialized wine aerator devices to mix ambient air into the wine. Injection-style aerator devices work by the Venturi effect and Bernoulli's principle, and typically feature a funnel or wide tube that narrows. Decanter-top aerator devices have been used for aeration, and sieve-style decanter-top funnels have also been used for aeration and for catching sediment. Boxed wine and vacuum-sealed wine can be aerated through the use of single glass aerating devices, some of which have movable spouts that adjust to different sizes and shapes of wine glasses.
Yet, despite the many styles of such aerator devices, full wine aeration tends to take a long time, and a single aerator device is not suitable for all types of wines and for all kinds of drinkers. Different individual drinkers often wish to drink wine, even from the same wine bottle, at different levels of aeration, and to pace themselves as to when to drink at different times, from other drinkers. As a result, multiple aerator devices, each suited for a particular wine and/or for a particular drinker, are sometimes employed, which is typically beyond what is necessary or appropriate for most drinkers. In addition, specially modified wine glasses with internal ridges are often not available for use, particularly outside the home of a wine enthusiast.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide a universal aerator device that can quickly achieve a full aeration, that can be customized for individual drinkers, that can be used for aerating a wide variety of different types of drinkable liquids, that does not require specially modified glasses, and that can be readily cleaned and re-cased.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The structural and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the invention with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.